Zoe felt her face fall as the disappointment grew inside her. She knew he was being rational, practical even, but knowing that did nothing to quell the irrational part of her brain that just wanted to remain in the excited state his presence gave her. “I know,” she responded finally.
She looked up and saw him was gazing at her intently. His hands were still on her neck and face, holding her close to him. He moved infinitesimally closer to her and her heart felt like it skipped a beat.
“I don’t know what will happen if I kiss you,” he whispered. He drew himself so close she could smell chlorine in the droplets of water on his skin. The thin yellow fabric of her swimsuit was all that separated her from intimately feeling his skin on hers. She was more than willing to find out.
The doorbell rang.
Evan expelled a breath so loudly it sounded like an expletive. He took a step back and she could no longer feel him against her. “That’s not what I meant,” he cursed to himself.
Disappointment, excitement, and irrational anger; she had never been through so many feelings in so little time. “I’ll be right back,” she excused herself. Reluctantly she turned away from him and headed back into the house towards the front door, each step an angry reminder of what she had just missed out on.
She swung the door open with unintended force and her anger immediately subsided when she saw it was Eva on the other side.
“Hi. Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she remarked, quickly scanning Zoe’s face.
Zoe shook her head and tried her best to manage her surprise. “Not at all. Come in. We were just hanging out by the pool.” She opened the door widely and tried to regain her composure as Eva entered the house and walked past her. She shut the door and pointed towards the French doors leading out the backyard.
“Evan’s out there. I’ll order some dinner and join you two in a few minutes.” She checked the time display on a digital clock in the living room and saw that the hours had gone by without notice. Darkness would soon descend on them to close another day.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to put you out,” Eva protested ever so politely.
“Of course not! I order out all the time.” She headed towards the kitchen counter where she kept a neat stack of take-out menus. In her peripheral vision she watched Eva enter the backyard and greet her brother, who had since put his shirt back on.
She picked through a folder of menus while discreetly keeping an eye on Evan and Eva. They seemed to be having some kind of tense conversation and she wondered what it was about. She continued to watch them as she dialed the restaurant and placed a delivery order. Zoe wondered what their relationship was like back home. Evan admitted he hadn’t seen his sister for a while so maybe there was very little relationship at all. Eva was there to bring her brother back home with her, and despite his protestations Zoe suspected that Evan would go with her whether he wanted to or not.
The delivery confirmed, Zoe hung up the phone and set it down on the counter next to the other menus. What would it mean for her if he left? Evan divulged that he was away more often than he was at home, so did that mean he would inevitably come back? How would that even work? He’d just pop in and out of universes as freely as he wanted, vacillating between Terra and Earth? Even with her limited scope of knowledge about the multiverse it sounded complicated, and like one hell of a long-distance relationship.
An hour later they were congregated around Zoe’s new outdoor dining table, enjoying a feast of chicken, beans, rice, tortillas, and all manner of vegetables and side dishes. It was enough food for three times as many people. A bottle of wine sat uncorked on the table, Zoe and Eva each with a glass.
“Zoe you have such a lovely home,” Eva mused. “I just love Spanish and Mediterranean style architecture!”
“Thank you,” Zoe smiled.
“Have you travelled to either place?” Eva inquired.
Zoe felt her cheeks flush as the memory of her visits to Italy and Greece came to mind. “Um, very briefly.” She looked up to find Evan smiling discreetly from across the table.
Eva’s nose crinkled. “How long is briefly? A week?”
“More like five or ten minutes,” she admitted before taking a long sip of wine.
Eva’s eyes shifted from Zoe to Evan and recognition dawned. “No. That’s not possible.”
“What?” Evan asked, his eyes fixed pointedly on his sister.
“I mean it’s literally not possible. It’s been tried before and each time the person from Earth either couldn’t do it or ended up with nasty radiation burns. Zoe looks perfectly fine.”